A Journey Finished
by cloaked-and-coastin
Summary: After moving into a new hometree, Jake has a loose end to tie up. For some reason, Jake would like to slip away and take care of it. However, with the effects of "the bond" between mates, keeping something a secret is not so easy.
1. Chapter 1

About six months after the victory at the Battle of the Tree of Souls, the Omaticaya clan had located and started to settle into their new hometree. A short while after this point in time, the clan has found its rhythm and the need for the clan leadership to constantly oversee the day to day activities of setting up house has lessened. Nobody in the tribe has noticed, but Neytiri has noticed that her mate has become a bit distracted from his duties as Olo'eyctan.

In their initial forming of the bond under the Tree of Voices, Neytiri had glimpsed the entirety of Jake's emotional and mental being. She had also noticed that were parts of him that were effectively hidden from the view granted by shahaylu. The Sky People were very good at telling non-truths and keeping their true intentions hidden from those around them. The reason for Jake's distraction was in one of these closed off parts of himself. It wasn't that Jake was lying to Neytiri, but it was that he was keeping something hidden that bothered her. Since Jake had started to become distracted, when she formed the bond with her mate, Neytiri made subtle attempts to discern what was bothering Jake. One time she caught a stray thought that was alien to her, but she was certain that it was related to Jake's change in behavior:

"...unfinished business..."

The next day she made a little trip out to the Tree of Souls to confer with an old teacher that taught her the concept behind the word: lie. If Grace Augustine could teach the meaning of this concept, then certainly she could offer some insight to why Jake was acting out of character and explain the semantics behind this phrase: unfinished business. In conferring with Grace's stored personae, Neytiri is able to gain a bit more understanding of how the Sky People's mind works.

Grace explains, "You see Neytiri, first you must remember that Jake was a marine. They are the toughest of the Sky People's warrior's. They are taught to rely on themselves first and foremost. Secondly, Jake went through an extended war on earth. Where the battle of the Tree of Souls lasted one day, the _war_ in Venezuela lasted several years. You've seen the emotional scars that a battle can do to a person, imagine what a war can do to someone."

"So it is not strange that Jake keeps things to himself?", Neytiri asks.

Grace replied, "Heavens no! Jake is very well adjusted for a war veteran. Many other Sky People who went through the same thing had their lives changed to one of a living death. The things they had seen and been forced to do made them wish for the end to come."

Neytiri is comforted by Grace's memories/observations of Jake. Though there has been much pain in his past on his home planet and here on Pandora (as the sky people call it), she senses that Jake seeks no harm to himself. She also takes comfort from the fact that it is not abnormal for Jake to keep some things to himself. Though, it is a uncommon tendency between mates, Neytiri realizes that this will be something that she'll have to work on years with her mate to overcome.

For all his faults, Jake had first come to the people as an ignorant sky person. Remembering to herself, "Like a baby, making noise, don't know what to do." _Her baby now_, smiling with satisfaction. He had then went on to complete the training to become one of the people. Though he had been a spy for the Sky People, after witnessing their power at the Battle of the Tree of Souls, Neytiri had realized that Jake had not helped home tree fall. This was something that was destined to happen: Jake or no Jake. What harm he had done to the Omaticaya, he had made amends by marshalling the forces of the goddess and crushing the Sky People. He had removed an immediate threat to both her people and planet. He had also opened her heart to several things she thought she would never have again: hope, laughter and love. Neytiri sensed that Jake would be making a trip soon to complete this "...unfinished business..." or _task left undone_. Though, she knew he wanted to complete this task on his own, something told her that he would end up needing her help to see it completed.


	2. Chapter 2

Jake leans against the central opening to the Omaticaya's new hometree. It is midmorning and the tribe's daily rhythm does not require much thought to assert itself. The days immediately after moving into the new hometree had been hectic. Jack chuckled to himself at the silly thought he had once the tribe had migrated to the new hometree.

_Just a little setting up house and things will settle down._

That theory didn't last too long. With a new home came the many decisions on the order of: who, what, when and the how of moving in. Jake had always thought him and his fellow grunts had got the short end of the deal when the officers handed out the orders. Shifting into grunt mode for a second, he recalls some of the other brilliant theories he's had in the past: _Our commanding officers are pencil neck, college grads without a rightly earned attitude. Who can take these guys seriously when they bark orders and then let us grunts go in and do the biting!_

These thoughts echo back to him from the past and mix with his present situation: W_ho could take someone seriously who has been put into a bad situation, has the welfare of a group of people in their hands, doesn't have the time to do the work himself, but must instead make all the important decisions, in order to lead them out of the said bad situation. Who __**couldn't**__, indeed. _Jake hadn't been physically taxed in the days immediately following the tribe taking up new residence. Surprisingly enough, it was an emotional thrashing that he had to endure.

The tribe's customs and traditions survived the Fall of Hometree. However, it was the day to day pattern of things that had been torn asunder. With key village skills lost to either Home Fall or the War, decisions had to be made on who would lead each group responsible for a certain skill. Each group was responsible for a skill critical to the clan's survival. After the choices of picking the leader responsible for getting a key area of responsibility up and running again, then decisions had to be made on how to use the available resources to go acquire more resources. People had to first produce tools necessary to make things like ropes, hammocks, looms, and walkways inside the new hometree. The tribe was eventually bootstrapping itself up and Jake was in the middle overseeing it all. During those days, Jake remembered that bedtime couldn't come soon enough for the tired Atlas on an alien world.

Jakes spine slightly shudders thinking about those strenuous days. He snaps out of his mid morning day dream and sees a village rapidly approaching autopilot in its day to day affairs. Now that the hard decisions had been made, it was up to the grunts to go figure out the small details. It was a moment like this that Jake comes to appreciate the serenity that exists when things are organized enough to run themselves.

It also a moment like this that Jake decides that tomorrow will be the day that he slips away to go on a little errand. This had been something that he had been planning to do when he first got to Pandora, but that first trip out into the bush with Grace and Norm had changed everything. Thinking past the tribe moving in, he realizes that it has been almost twelve months since he had arrived on Pandora. _What a difference a year makes._

These first several months had witnessed Jake taking many a great leaps. The types of leaps Jake has taken boggle his mind: from cryo to this new planet, off a cliff (to avoid a 2 ton meat eater), off a tree limb, onto the back of his banshee, onto the back of the Turok, onto the back of a bomber and finally from his human shell. It suddenly occurs to Jake that each of these leaps represented a stepping stone whose path lead to the loving arms of his lifemate, Neytiri.

Jake recalls the night that he woke up from the last and most terrifying leap of all. He had opened his eyes to an angelic vision. His eyes beheld a woman that had lost so much, but who had just received confirmation that it all had been worth it. Upon sitting up, Eytukan's little girl wrapped her arms around Jake where he spent the next several minutes promising a trembling princess that he would never leave her again.

A very low level uneasiness descends upon Jake with this last thought. Jake had pinned it on the after effects of forming the bond with Neytiri, since nowadays he always feels a bit uneasy when Neytiri isn't around. Old marine thoughts start to ring in his head: _What a panty-waist! Can't be away from the woman for two seconds without feeling guilty? _Then a husband's mentality counters: _I can't help it, I'm in love. _Conflicted, Jake thinks to himself that he isn't really leaving Neytiri tomorrow, per say. He is just running a small errand to take care of something. A something that has started to weigh heavier and heavier as the demands on his time have lessened. Jake would soon find out the answer to the question that hangs heavy on him: Is it still there?


	3. Chapter 3

As the late hours of the night start to approach, Neytiri feels the low level uneasiness start to form again. Seconds later, Jake ducks into their private alcove and upon seeing her he smiles and says: "Hey babe." Neytiri is simply confused by the duplicity she is experiencing here. On the exterior Jake seems to be his normal, happy go lucky self, but below the surface Neytiri could feel the anticipation/uneasiness that he is carrying. What confuses her the most is that Jake doesn't give any indication that he needs/wants to confide his feelings to her. Before meeting Jake, Neytiri was simply used to dealing with her people who wore their hearts on their sleeves. But now, having been immersed in both Jake's being and the tawtute mindset through shayhalu, she remembers a concept that she has implicitly learned from him and voiceless repeats it to herself: _poker face._

Jake is carrying himself in a manner that did not reveal his thoughts/feelings. Being a huntress of the people, Neytiri makes the connection that she herself had done something similar to this when hunting prey. The difference being that this manner would stop when she left the forest and rejoined her people after the hunt. To be among the people, but yet acting as if on the hunt is a habit that Neytiri considers strange, but yet simply: _her Jake._ It is just this prolonged, growing uneasiness that Neytiri finds disconcerting.

The most disconcerting aspect of this situation is that Jake: the sixth Toruk Macto, chief of the Omaticaya, winning leader of the War, the man who permanently changed bodies and the man who successfully settled the tribe into a new hometree is grappling with uneasiness. Neytiri wants to take her lovers face into both of her hands, ask for the name of this unknown opponent and where she could go to find and defeat it. In coming to love her Jake, Neytiri has come to realize that another difference between the tawtute and her people is the tendency for the tawtute to act in the _**then **_vs the Navi to act in the _**now**_. For the moment, Neytiri is calmed by this, smiles and replies: "Hello, my love."

"Neytiri, tomorrow I'm going hunting." Jake quietly says. "The village can manage without me for the day while I go clear my head."

"It has been sometime since we've been alone in the forest." Neytiri says innocently. She detected Jake's implied wish to go alone and normally she would have thought nothing of it. Though this time, the uneasiness she has been feeling had suddenly spiked. Neytiri knew something was going to happen on Jake's trip out.

"Babe, it has been awhile since I've been out into the forest by myself. Would you mind if I go alone?" Jake innocently replied. "When I get back tomorrow and check in, then maybe you and I could take an all night trip out into the forest together?" Jake adds with a devilish grin.

Before Neytiri could think about some of the delightful possibilities of a night out in the jungle alone with Jake, a pair of five fingered hands tenderly grasped her shoulders. Working his thumbs in a circular motion, Jake starts to unlock the tension of a long day from his lover's shoulders. Then a kiss placed on the sensual spot at the base of her neck takes her mind off of the nuances of her mate's personality. Neytiri reaches up behind her and places a hand on the back of Jakes head. She brings Jake around to face her where both lovers see they are plainly drunk on each other's presence. This sets the pace of a night where lovers are unified in both body and spirit.

Neytiri gladly curls up to Jake and sleep quickly meets the exhausted lovers. Having formed shayhalu with Jake before sleep, she takes some of his thoughts/memories into her dreams. She dreams of a man with a face like her mate, but who is not her Jake. She also has dreams of laughing children playing games. One game in particular where most of the participants go hide and one plays the seeker. The seeker looks for his prey, seeks his prey, hunts his prey…HUNTING!

_Whaaap!_ Neytiri wakes with a start looking at a four fingered hand, which happens to belongs to her, splayed out where her mate should have been. Instead it lays on the empty spot beside her. Neytiri quickly looks around and realizes that Jake has made good on his intention of going into the forest alone today. Thinking of the night that has just passed, an incredulous smile forms on her face.

_Jake intended for this to happen. _Struggling with a suddenly new, alien concept; a conclusion formed from an idea not of her world comes to her. _He __**seduced **__me!_

With a lopsided grin on her face, Neytiri quickly dresses while thinking to herself that she'll spend a lifetime learning the tricky ways of the tawtute. With her bow in hand, she heads topside to grab her ikran in order to find Jake and the source of the uneasiness that haunts him.


	4. Chapter 4

Jake, atop his ikran, reaches both arms out with palms up, bends his head back and savors the moment. For what seems like an eternity, he holds a soothing communion with the wind, takes a deep breath, exhales and reassumes the rider's position. Slightly dizzy from maintaining such a long stretch, Jake thinks: _This is a beautiful day. But, one that I've been dreading for some time, one that has needed to come and go for awhile now._

Having been in the air for a couple of hours now, Jake shudders at what is coming over the horizon. The sight of the fallen hometree is still terrible thing to see. Seeing the burnt out hulk and the great radius of ash that surrounds it, brings a shiver to Jakes spine and a sorrow filled prayer to his lips. Thinking of this great disaster wrought by human ignorance, Jake thinks of another such disaster that happened on Earth over 150 years ago. The memory of seeing hometree fall that day, makes Jake realize how the people of that aged disaster felt. Though long gone, Jake offers another prayer for those that perished that day as well.

Shaking off the melancholy mood, Jake starts to focus on the search that lies ahead. Fifteen more minutes in the air and Jake takes his ikran down. Upon landing, before breaking the bond, Jake points a half serious finger at his companion: _OK Varmint, you be good. Stay out of sight and if you see anybody, squawk. I'll be back in a couple of hours, okay?_

An elementary response comes across the bond. _Not nice name! Will watch. Please find your prey, sadness then go away._

Humbled by the concern of his companion, all Jake can respond with is a feeling of love for his mount, a rub of the snout and a quick departure.

Jake thinks: _Even he is starting to feel it. That means Neytiri has definitely picked up on this as well. I'm gonna have some explaining to do when I get back. There's no keeping this a secret._

It's been sometime since he has been in this part of the forest. Jake starts to retrace the steps of that fateful day.

_Yep, here's where Grace and Norm were taking their samples. _Jake meanders over to the pink plants that he had been playing with that day. _Okaaay, Here's where I met Mr. Hammerhead Titanothere aaannnddd where I met one very hungry, pissed off kitty._

A ghost from the past speaks to Jake. _RUN, DEFINITELY RUN!_

On cue, Jake swivels on one foot and starts a slow jog. Slowly hopping over the logs and running though the tree roots, retracing his path he goes. After a bit he stops, _This is the tree that I tried to take shelter in from PO'd kitty_. Just to be sure, Jake pokes his head in and sees the spent shell casings.

_Hey wait a minute. _Jake walks over a bit from the hole that had been ripped in the trees roots. He looks around a bit. _I'll be damned!_

Jake picks up a slightly rusted machine gun with bite marks on it. _No sense, leaving this laying around._ Jake points the gun up, rests it against his shoulder and continues his journey. Then Jake see's a fallen tree with a hole beneath it.

Echoes of waves at the beach, seagulls and child's play rise in his head._ This has to be done. There's no turning back now, just go through, do it and get on with your new life._ An ache has now formed in Jakes chest. _Hell, it might not even be there!_

Jake crawls through the hole. His eyes take a second to focus as he scans the opening in the jungle. A lump freezes in Jakes's throat as his eyes lock onto it. _THERE!_

Jake sees the backpack that PO'd kitty made him detach from that day. Seconds pass as Jake looks at it in disbelief. It had been hear the whole time, undisturbed.

Jake takes in a deep breath, exhales and reverently approaches the backpack. _Okay, let's just get this over with._

Jake kneels down next to it, opens the zipper and reaches in. Slowly his hand searches through the bag and then his finger brushes up against something metallic. He then grasps it with his hand. He feels the engravings underneath his fingers and starts to remember the inscription that he had put on it. Jake's lower jaw starts to tremble slightly.

Jake closes his eyes, pulls the container out, holds it front of him and opens his eyes to read:

_Thomas J. Sully_

_2131-2148_

_Fearless traveler, beloved brother and great friend._

A dam slowly starts to break inside Jake. An agony that had been too stunning to deal with the week before shipping out to Pandora, which lay dormant for 5 years-9 months-22 days, and then put on the back burner for the last year now claims Jake. He sinks to his knees, first trembling, then heaving with uncontrollable sobs.

Jake can only think._ Well buddy, now that I've found you…I can say goodbye._


	5. Chapter 5

Jake simply feels helpless at this point in time. Jake remembers lying on the jungle floor in Venezuela after being hit by the piece of shrapnel that took his legs. This time it isn't a physical wound that has made him feeble, it is an emotional one. Now that the initial wave of grief has passed, Jake can only contemplate the object in his hands: an urn that contains the remains of Thomas J. Sully.

In a low whisper, "_I'm probably just talking to an urn right now, but buddy it wasn't meant to turn out like this. On the trip out with Norm and Grace, I was going to find a quiet scenic place, spread your ashes and grieve later. But then that damn cat came along."_

The strangeness of the situation is not lost on Jake. Taking inventory of the situation: _Here I am on an alien world, in an alien's body, making excuses to a tin can which contains my dead brother's ashes. _That last thought puts a lump in the throat and tightens his lower jaw. _Here comes another one. _With one hand over his eyes and the other around the metal container, Jake lets the tears flow. It's a quiet, dignified release of emotion. Minutes seem to pass like hours.

This one is intense though. While crouched over the bag, Jake has to put one hand on the ground to balance himself. Jake hangs his head and takes a labored breathe. A split second before contact, Jake is aware who has come for him. A set of four finger hands massage his beleaguered shoulders.

Then a hand reaches up under Jake's arm and gently lays itself across his heart. What is sensed is a loving heart that has held much grief, but is now getting ready to let go it. Having just found the greatest personified force in recent Navi history emotionally distraught, Neytiri can only ask in a concerned, but loving voice "Ma Jake, what is this thing you hold that causes you so much pain?"

Jake pulls a beathe in, holds it for a long moment and exhales. In a soft voice "It's Tommy." The arms that have wrapped themselves around the front side of Jake tighten up as if their owner had been hit by a lightning bolt. Sensing the need to explain and eliminate the uncertainty, Jake reaches for one of Neytiri's arms and whispers "C'mere."

Bringing his life mate around to sit in front of him, Jake sees an uncertain face with eyes begging for understanding. Jake forms a theory in his head about Neytiri's confusion: _The Navi always bury their dead, return them for the all-mother to use for her needs. It was probably decided long ago that cremating the dead was stealing from the all-mother. Once that decision was made, burying a body just became the sensible thing to do and to do anything otherwise, passed from memory._

In a soft voice "My love, remember when I told you that Tommy had died before I came here from my home world?" Neytiri anxiously nods her head. "I didn't exactly give you all the details of how I said goodbye to him, because I really didn't get a chance to do it. You see on Earth, one of the ways we say goodbye is by burning the body and releasing the ashes in a place that meant something to the one who has passed. What I am saying is that Tommy's body was burned and his ashes were put into this container that I hold in my hand. "

Neytiri instantly connects the dots "You brought your brothers ashes with you so you could release his ashes here on this world." Then asks a valid question "Since Thomas never knew this world, why wouldn't you have released his ashes on your own home world though?"

"Tommy was an adventurer at heart. He had put so much time and effort into the training needed to be a dreamwalker." Jake thinks about the three years that Tommy had spent training in order to get selected to get sent to Pandora. In a semi-distracted voice "I just couldn't leave him behind."

Having understood that Jake had come to conduct a small, private funeral, Neytiri still has some questions about the manner in which the _tawtute_ say goodbye to their dead. "Jake? Thomas was your brother, part of your family. When it is time to say goodbye to a family member who has passed, do you not surround yourself with other family members to do this?"

A small voice in Jake's head warns: _Be careful here. She's trying to understand why you didn't include her in on this. There's no intention to send you on a guilt trip, just a very sincere attempt to understand._

Jake looks lovingly into Neytiri's eyes "Sugar. Tommy was a part of my family, **you **are a part of my family and maybe I should have asked you to be a part of saying goodbye to him today. It's just all this happened before I ever met you. I guess I'm just guilty in wanting to spare you all this weird _tawtute_ stuff."

Neytiri knows her Jake. It makes sense to him, so it makes sense to her. This simple truth along with the recollection of an old teacher talking about the jarhead clan: _They are taught to rely on themselves first and foremost. _These are elements to Jake's personality that cause her to love him and at times drive her nuts. But in the end, that's her Jake.

Though Neytiri has been a bit of a student today, but being a Tsahik in training, she now takes on the role of a teacher. "My Jake, it is not good to dwell on these things. It is better to say goodbye and then move on."

Jake silently agrees with her and then stands up. "C'mon, let's go say goodbye."

He pulls Neytiri up and then quietly leads her down a path he'd taken once before. Just a short walk from where the backpack had been, puts the two at a cliff overlooking a waterfall. In a way, this had been the place where Jake had started his journey. It seemed kind of fitting that this would be the place where Tommy would finish his.

Now a pair of four fingered hands hold Jake's one free hand. Neytiri draws close and leans a head on his shoulder.

The sound of the waterfall is not deafening, but it does cause Jake to turn his head slightly and speak in a raised voice. "Neytiri, I want to say an old _tawtute_ prayer before I release his ashes."

She catches an impression that Jake had just asked permission to give the _tawtute_ prayer instead of the all-mother's prayer. She quickly nods her head in acknowledgement to Jake's request/statement.

Jake pauses for a moment as he reaches back in his memory for the simple, but powerful prayer that was fitting for moments such as this. Neytiri participates in a ceremony that is new, yet seemingly familiar to her. Jake begins to recite the old tawtute prayer:

_In the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life…_

It is a prayer she has never heard before, but like the ceremony, it seems very familiar to her.

_…we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust._

As she focuses on the words that quietly come from Jake, she can only think that the essence of these words are somewhat in line with the prayer that would be recited at a Navi funeral.

_...make his face to shine upon him…_

Just a different way of saying, the body stays behind, but the soul goes to the maker.

_...lift up his countenance upon him and give him peace. Amen._

Holding the metal container in one hand, Jake hits the automatic release mechanism with his thumb. Holding the container carefully, he watches the lid slowly slide open. Holding the container firmly, he waits for a second and then swings it in a horizontal arc. As the ashes of Thomas J. Sully mix with the water vapor of the waterfall, Neytiri reflects on what she has just witnessed.

_My Jake. With all the changes you've made in your life recently, it seems you've kept a bit of your human self. It seems my brave, invincible warrior does have a weakness. A weakness that you wanted to hide from even me, a weakness for family._

She watches Jake as these thoughts flow through her head. She senses that a heavy weight has been lifted from his shoulders. This is a new side to Jake that she is only now starting to glimpse. A Jake who has put the last of his ghosts to rest and is now ready to enjoy the fruits of his accomplishments.

Jake contemplates the milestone that has just been achieved. _Tommy's been put to rest. The people are safe and recovering. I have a woman who loves me about as much as I love her. Yeah, it is starting to look like we may have a bit of calm sailing._

With the light of his life standing beside him, Jake beholds a serene place that he'll end up coming back to from time to time to commune with the spirit of a dear, departed one. In these future times, he will sometimes come alone and other times he'll bring members of his family, some yet unborn. Taking in the scene, Jake sees Tommy's face from a particular happy moment he shared with his brother superimposed upon the view from the cliff. Filled with a sense of relief, Jake draws in a breathe soaked with water vapor, holds it and lets it out.

A small smile finds its way on to Jake's face. In a voice only meant for Tommy to hear "Well buddy, it's over. Your journey is finished. Now it's time for me to say goodbye." Jake savors these last few seconds and then lets go: "Bye Tommy."

Hand in hand, a pair of lovers slowly make their way back to their mounts. The two go to start a journey, in whose duration, they will know love for each other, love for their children and for the time being, a well deserved peace.


End file.
